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Killer History: Why do they leave all the fun stuff out of the history books?
Killer History: Why do they leave all the fun stuff out of the history books? is an irreverent look at the past. We will look at Thomas Jefferson’s presidential hobby. We will explore if George Washington married a hot babe. You may not have known about Woodrow Wilson’s fascination with traffic laws enforcement. We will dig into the presidential scandals of the Grant Administration. We will also explore if Richard Nixon’s drinking nearly caused World War III.
155 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 27, 2012
36 people are currently reading
250 people want to read
About the author
Marek McKenna
16 books5 followersMarek McKenna has made history fun and entertaining for students for the past decade. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa and lives in the woods of North Carolina. He facilitates undergraduate history courses.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 27, 2018
Honestly, I don't remember if I finished this. There was, I believe, some interesting stuff in there... But not as much or as interesting as the author seemed to think, and with dubious authenticity. A pretty good idea, poorly executed.
And poorly written and edited, unless phrases like "working a crowd into a rebellious furry" are meant to be giggle-inducing. I think that's one of my favorite typos ever - but it doesn't make me like the book better.
And poorly written and edited, unless phrases like "working a crowd into a rebellious furry" are meant to be giggle-inducing. I think that's one of my favorite typos ever - but it doesn't make me like the book better.
June 25, 2018
Not worth it
I feel like writing this in full sentences is too respectful for this book. I was hoping for a fun, quirky guide through little-known historical events. And I think that's what McKenna was hoping to deliver. But there were too many problems.
Take, for instance, the lack of editing. This guy is supposed to teach history at the college level. I hope his students don't get docked points on their papers for misspellings, incorrect grammar and punctuation, or unnecessary repetition. If so, he's a complete hypocrite. This book is littered with these errors and sometimes gets difficult to read because of that. It appears that this would be a first draft. That he never read it after he wrote it. And I haven't checked, but this must be self-published because no publishing house should let this out the door.
The tone of the book seems to be aiming for irreverent humor. 99% of the time it falls flat. A couple times it gets vulgar. I could forgive that if the vulgarity was funny, but it's just plain tasteless.
Finally, there are no sources for the author's claims. These events are supposedly little-known or retold incorrectly everywhere but here, yet he supplies no verification for his claims. I'm more than happy to look at a listed source to verify truths, but I'm not going to spend my time researching each topic. If I wanted to do that, I'd just rewrite the book.
I guess it's apparent that I really have nothing redeeming to say about this book. Don't bother.
I feel like writing this in full sentences is too respectful for this book. I was hoping for a fun, quirky guide through little-known historical events. And I think that's what McKenna was hoping to deliver. But there were too many problems.
Take, for instance, the lack of editing. This guy is supposed to teach history at the college level. I hope his students don't get docked points on their papers for misspellings, incorrect grammar and punctuation, or unnecessary repetition. If so, he's a complete hypocrite. This book is littered with these errors and sometimes gets difficult to read because of that. It appears that this would be a first draft. That he never read it after he wrote it. And I haven't checked, but this must be self-published because no publishing house should let this out the door.
The tone of the book seems to be aiming for irreverent humor. 99% of the time it falls flat. A couple times it gets vulgar. I could forgive that if the vulgarity was funny, but it's just plain tasteless.
Finally, there are no sources for the author's claims. These events are supposedly little-known or retold incorrectly everywhere but here, yet he supplies no verification for his claims. I'm more than happy to look at a listed source to verify truths, but I'm not going to spend my time researching each topic. If I wanted to do that, I'd just rewrite the book.
I guess it's apparent that I really have nothing redeeming to say about this book. Don't bother.
June 16, 2012
There's a lot of crazy stuff in this book!
July 5, 2018
Very fun read
No dry boring history lessons here . I thoroughly enjoyed reading the short sketches from American history . I was a history major in college and these are exactly the kind of things that kept me interested in the subject for four years . McKenna has shown talent in his subject. His classes must be a blast .
No dry boring history lessons here . I thoroughly enjoyed reading the short sketches from American history . I was a history major in college and these are exactly the kind of things that kept me interested in the subject for four years . McKenna has shown talent in his subject. His classes must be a blast .
July 17, 2021
This is really like a short collection of articles about odd little things that don't make most history books. Like, did George Washington marry martha for love or was he a gold-digger marrying her for her fortune. Or, did Grant's administration rival Trump's regarding scandals? If you like this kind of history, this is an interesting mini-book.
June 15, 2018
The little short stories are interesting, and I'm sure would be fascinating in lecture format (the author is a professor), however it didn't work for me in book format.
March 4, 2023
I love history and this book was interesting and enjoyable. The book has short history collections that I never heard before. Highly recommend it.
October 29, 2014
I one-clicked this book for two reasons -- it was free and 90 pct. of my reading is history or historical fiction. After reading it I have only two good things about this wretched book.
1. It is free (but my time isn't).
2. It was short (but I still had to struggle to get through it.
To me it's amazing that the writer obtained a degree from the University of Iowa. His lack of grammar skills and punctuation ability is absolutely atrocious to the point that sometimes the book is almost impossible to read. His writing lacks any cohesion at all. I winced every time he said something such as: the man "that" ran the store.....
The author presents himself as a college history instructor and sets out to tell us a lot of stuff we don't read in our history books. BALDERDASH! What high school history student hasn't heard about President Grant and the Jay Gould and Credit Mobilier scandals? Or that the unmarried Warren G. Harding fathered a child out of wedlock ten years before his presidency? Or that Mary Todd Lincoln was a spendthrift and had mental issues? Or that Richard Nixon sometimes drank the hard stuff?
When he does say something that one doesn't find in history books, he provides no credible documentation.
For instance, he says Harding's love child was the result of Harding raping the child's mother. Harding volunteered that he had been paying support for the child since his birth. Getting from there to rape is a pretty big leap. Or 85 pct of the WAACS on Eisenhower's ETO staff were lesbians. This information came from an NCO. But how the sergeant knew that is never told.
By the way, at the end of the book, I learned that the author's teaching was "facilitating" history courses at an on-line university.
1. It is free (but my time isn't).
2. It was short (but I still had to struggle to get through it.
To me it's amazing that the writer obtained a degree from the University of Iowa. His lack of grammar skills and punctuation ability is absolutely atrocious to the point that sometimes the book is almost impossible to read. His writing lacks any cohesion at all. I winced every time he said something such as: the man "that" ran the store.....
The author presents himself as a college history instructor and sets out to tell us a lot of stuff we don't read in our history books. BALDERDASH! What high school history student hasn't heard about President Grant and the Jay Gould and Credit Mobilier scandals? Or that the unmarried Warren G. Harding fathered a child out of wedlock ten years before his presidency? Or that Mary Todd Lincoln was a spendthrift and had mental issues? Or that Richard Nixon sometimes drank the hard stuff?
When he does say something that one doesn't find in history books, he provides no credible documentation.
For instance, he says Harding's love child was the result of Harding raping the child's mother. Harding volunteered that he had been paying support for the child since his birth. Getting from there to rape is a pretty big leap. Or 85 pct of the WAACS on Eisenhower's ETO staff were lesbians. This information came from an NCO. But how the sergeant knew that is never told.
By the way, at the end of the book, I learned that the author's teaching was "facilitating" history courses at an on-line university.
July 6, 2012
All-too-quick historical trivia in a Kindle edition absent the book's images, needed editing and littered with random hyperlinks made this an underwhelming read. The author is abviously a history fanatic with a lot of knowledge to share, but the delivery was lacking.
Did you know the Wright Brothers weren't actually the first to make a powered flight? That they weren't even second? (Of course, being the first to have a photographer on hand is what made the difference.) That was one of the best of the breathless, hurried vignettes.
Did you know the Wright Brothers weren't actually the first to make a powered flight? That they weren't even second? (Of course, being the first to have a photographer on hand is what made the difference.) That was one of the best of the breathless, hurried vignettes.
June 29, 2012
The content was interesting although citations would have been helpful (I am not sure if the Kindle edition somehow left out citations like the pictures, so this may be a non-issue). The bigger problem for me was the poor grammar and lack of flow even within each section. I am not a grammar nazi, but when poor sentence structures are present it makes it difficult to read and detracts from the content.
March 7, 2015
Why can't liberal academic demagogues shake it?
I think they call it "false consensus effect", through amongst academics that description may faulted, given their overall delusional leanings.
Cleverly written, if you can stomach the slant, however. One passage claimed Hillary to be the only "viable" female presidential candidate in history. Nauseating, but humorous, given the source.
I think they call it "false consensus effect", through amongst academics that description may faulted, given their overall delusional leanings.
Cleverly written, if you can stomach the slant, however. One passage claimed Hillary to be the only "viable" female presidential candidate in history. Nauseating, but humorous, given the source.
August 18, 2012
I finally stopped reading this at about a third of the way through. The writing style is poor enough that I couldn't stand to finish it, although I'm a big history fan. I'm happy that this was offered as a free download. If I would have paid for it, I would have cried.
January 12, 2013
Not bad for a quick, free read. Desperately in need of an editor. If you're into quirky historical facts and can overlook some serious grammar problems, this is fun. I kept wishing each chapter was long -- it felt like a Wikipedia stub article for each one.
January 21, 2013
While this book had a lot of interesting background information, it was far too US President-oriented to justify the title. A good two-thirds of the book was devoted to essays on Presidents for some reason. Fairly well-written, though.
May 11, 2015
Because nobody seems to know what is the truth.
This is an interesting book and I like the way the author calls out Wikipedia on their mistakes but I believe there are things missing and mistakes in this book as well.
This is an interesting book and I like the way the author calls out Wikipedia on their mistakes but I believe there are things missing and mistakes in this book as well.
May 15, 2015
Short but entertaining
This is a really great to educate yourself on what really was behind the headlines. I recommend and will be doing a search to see what else this author has to read.
This is a really great to educate yourself on what really was behind the headlines. I recommend and will be doing a search to see what else this author has to read.
September 14, 2012
Fun, quick read of little known vignettes of American history.
Read
July 10, 2012fun read!
July 28, 2012
very light, poorly organized, quite random and politically slanted. if you like all those.. then go for it.
August 19, 2012
Good quick read that probably conveys more in a few short pages than most history books do in a few hundred.
October 21, 2012
I was hoping for, I don't know, more....
February 12, 2013
This did not meet my expectations. I have seen much of this stuff in other writings.
June 5, 2013
ughhh.... I couldn't even make myself finish this book.
November 1, 2013
An interesting set of facts on historical figures that they never taught you in school. A fun and interesting read.
February 21, 2015
My guess is that this book started as a blog.
While entertaining, it seems steeped in speculation rather than proven fact. Sources aren't cited. Needs editing.
While entertaining, it seems steeped in speculation rather than proven fact. Sources aren't cited. Needs editing.
June 27, 2015
Interesting but would have loved to see the photos which did not show up on my kindle.
August 1, 2015
A good read
This book has its flaws . However all in all it is informative . I will recommend this to all the real History buffs out there
This book has its flaws . However all in all it is informative . I will recommend this to all the real History buffs out there
June 24, 2012
Interesting facts at times, some are a bit boring. Overall a good read.
July 7, 2012
Good read
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews